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- Read on for English and French language versions of this story- La traduction française suit le texte anglais

The 1st IAAF World Junior Coaches Conference was a resounding success with more than 200 coaches from 60 IAAF Member Federations attending the one-day event in Eugene on Monday (28).

The event, held in the University of Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union Ballroom, followed on directly from the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014, which concluded the day before.

The conference was opened by IAAF President Lamine Diack.

IAAF Vice President and chairman of the Development Commission Sergey Bubka, as well as IAAF Council Member and chairman of the Coaches‘ Commission Victor Lopez, were also on hand and talked broadly about the importance of coaching and the knowledge required.

The floor was then handed over to six experts from around the world who gave presentations on a variety of topics, which included: the physiological, psychological and training issues relevant to junior athletes, especially prodigious performers at an elite level.

A measure of the impact of the presentations (which were immediately available to all participants at the end of the conference) was that, owing to the plethora of questions after each presentation, the moderators did not have enough time for all of them to be answered by the relevant speakers.

Thanks should go to the USAF and its personnel for helping make the conference possibly the best ever organised by the IAAF.

This conference is the latest in the series of coaching seminars promoted and organised by the IAAF as part of its commitment to the development of the sport.

It follows in the footsteps of the successful 2nd IAAF World Coaches Conference held in Moscow last August, immediately after the conclusion of the 2013 IAAF World Championships.